Mechanical Bootcamp

Owned by Alison Thompson
Last updated: 2024-09-20 by Smile Khatri
7 min read

Introduction

Before embarking on this subteam bootcamp ensure you’ve completed the instructions inBootcamper Onboarding .

This Bootcamp is designed to help you through the learning curve of joining a new team and get you up to speed with following WARG’s CAD guidelines while giving you a project that is fully your own. The hope is that once you complete this Bootcamp you will feel confident and hopefully have acquired enough skills such that you are ready to take on tasks with our team!

Bootcamp Objectives

  • Make justified mechanical design decisions based on project constraints and criteria, and gain exposure to the design process.

  • Learn CAD design in SolidWorks.

  • Learn how to make parts & assemblies in SolidWorks.

  • Learn how to properly create and format drawings in SolidWorks.

  • Start learning about aerial robotics!

  • Participate in design discussion & review and have fun

Bootcamp Outline

This Bootcamp contains 3 tasks, all of which must be completed and reviewed before you can take on tasks on Mechanical Team.

Before starting your designs, please review WARG’s CAD Guidelines and read the whole document! If your submission does not follow these guidelines or meet all constraints, you will be asked to redo it.

Using SolidWorks

Please use the most recent version of SolidWorks.

To get access:

  • SW has a free 30 day trial which can be downloaded from their website.

  • If you are an MME student you may already have a version downloaded from your ME/MTE 100 class.

  • All the engineering computer labs have SW on the computers.

  • The WARG Bay has a version of SW on our desktop computer.

One of these methods should be used to complete the Bootcamp. Please let a lead know if you need help accessing SolidWorks.

For absolute beginners, here is a great resource for starting out: https://my.solidworks.com/training/path/14/cswa-exam-prep-course. Please ask questions if you get stuck!

Getting Started

Ensure you’ve completed the instructions inBootcamper Onboarding .
Message in #bootcamp-mechanical your name, your program, and that you’re getting started on the Bootcamp
Complete the three bootcamp tasks below

Task 1: ESC Case Design

Background

The design of electronics cases is a very common task on WARG’s Mechanical team. By completing this task you will gain experience designing a case for an existing component while ensuring it meets all of the constraints of the application.

Task

This task requires you to design a case for the electronic speed controllers (ESCs) that are used on our 2024 competition drone. The STEP file for this ESC is here:

Constraints

ESC case must be able to be mounted to a 30mm x 30mm grid of M3 clearance holes. Note that your mounting holes don’t have to be exactly 30mm apart, but they must be a multiple of 30mm apart in order to fit the grid.
Your case must be able to be 3D printed.
There must be clearance for wires to be connected to the ESC terminals.
There must be clearance for the capacitor installed on the ESC
The wire terminals should be protected on the top and bottom to prevent someone or something from accidentally contacting or shorting them.
There must be some form of ventilation to allow airflow to passively cool the ESC.

Example

 

Task 2: Landing Gear Design

Background

An important part of what you will do on the Mechanical Team on WARG is integrating your designs with existing drones while keeping in mind weight and manufacturability.

Task

You are tasked with designing a landing gear that mounts to the 2025 competition drone airframe, attached here:

Constraints

Your landing gear should be made in its own subassembly, please do not build it directly in the x-frame assembly.
Your landing gear must be mounted to the main x-frame tubes, you may add mounting holes for this.
You may use the same size carbon fiber tubes as the x-frame, 22mm outer diameter, and 20mm inner diameter.
Your landing gear should be designed to break at the joint connecting it to the main frame if it has a hard crash, but not on a normal landing. The purpose of this is to protect the carbon fiber tubes. (This is hard and we’re not looking for it to be perfect, just have an explanation in mind as to how your design meets this)
Using a density of 0.002 g/mm^3 for carbon fiber tubes, 0.0006 g/mm^3 for any 3D printed parts, and 6061-T6 aluminum for aluminum parts, the total mass of your landing gear should be below 500g (you can modify the materials assigned to your part to have these densities). The mass of your assembly can be viewed using the Mass Properties panel in SolidWorks.
Common materials that can be used include carbon fiber tubes, carbon fiber PETG blend 3D printer filament, and 6061-T6 aluminum but you are welcome to use others! Just make sure to assign your materials properly so we can check the weight.

Task 3: Drafting Practice

Background

Another important task on WARG is being able to properly communicate your designs to be manufactured using technical drawings.

Task

For this task, you will use the WARG drawing template file: to create a properly formatted technical drawing for the steel jig used to drill holes in carbon fiber tubes which is attached here: . You can follow the instructions in this document to set the drawing template (you will need to redo this as well as add other templates for parts and assemblies once your Bootcamp is approved and you get PDM access): Setting Solidworks Default Templates

Constraints

The only constraint for this task is that you must follow all drafting guidelines as outlined here: CAD Guidelines

Example

Final Checklist

Before you follow the below steps to submit your Bootcamp, you must go through this checklist to ensure you’ve followed all WARG CAD guidelines. This checklist is how you will be evaluated and if you don’t meet ALL requirements you will be asked to address them before your Bootcamp will be reviewed.

Parts and Assemblies

All parts (sketches) are fully defined (No blue lines!)
All fastening holes (screw, bolt etc. holes) are done using hole wizard. Extruded cut holes are not acceptable except for weight-saving holes.
Only M3 and M5 fasteners are used.
Wherever possible, SHCS (Socket Head Cap Screws) are used, if you need to use another kind of bolt you must be able to justify it in your design review.
Relations (mates & constraints) are used to eliminate redundant dimensions.
Parts are made in MMGS scale.
Assemblies contain ALL components fully defined and related, with all relevant dimensions specified.
Similar fillets or chamfers are made in the SAME feature.
All fillets/chamfers are added as features and NOT included in the sketches.
Assemblies are manufacturable with appropriate tolerances (ie parts have clearance to be assembled and parts don’t have to go through walls/break physics to work). If asked in your review, you can explain how you think each part should be made.

Drawings

General

Submitting your Bootcamp

Congrats, you’ve done it! Use the SolidWorks' "Pack and Go" feature to create a zip file of your parts and assembly, please name it FIRSTNAME-LASTNAME-MechBootcamp. If you do not use the “Pack and Go” feature and just copy and zip the files , it will not work.

Create a new thread in mech-design-review-reqs in Discord with the follow information:

  1. A link to your bootcamp zip file (on a google drive, or another file-sharing service)

  2. Times you are available for a review in the next week

  3. A ping to “@mechanical lead” so we know to review

  4. Add the “bootcamp” tag to your post

We’ll set up a call to have a quick chat about you and your design as soon as possible.

Completion of Bootcamp

Upon the approved completion of the Bootcamp by a Team Lead you are now eligible to work on other tasks with the team! If you have any feedback you would like to give to make this Bootcamp better please let a Team Lead know as we want this to be the best and most informative introduction to the team as possible.

Once you have completed the Bootcamp and it has been reviewed, please read through https://uwarg-docs.atlassian.net/l/cp/2YYfFhg8 and follow the instructions within.

Please make sure to read through Mech Design Workflow and the pages linked within before starting your first WARG task. Welcome to WARG!

 

 

https://uwarg-docs.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/MEC